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er African National Congress intelligence operative Mo Shaik
has kept a database of more than 880 suspected apartheid government
spies, it was revealed yesterday.
Shaik told the Hefer Commission the ANC had investigated all these
people during the liberation struggle as suspected
informants.
This was done as part of Project Bible, which was aimed at
combating government infiltration of the then liberation
movement.
Shaik commanded Project Bible within South Africa and reported on
the matter to Jacob Zuma, who is now deputy president.
During cross-examination by Hefer Commission evidence leader Kessie
Naidu, SC, Shaik admitted the database was still in his
possession.
It was kept on a computer and accessed with a secret code.
When Naidu suggested that such information should be protected by
the intelligence agencies, Shaik said he had informed the agencies
of the database.
He did not inform President Thabo Mbeki, but Mbeki was aware of the
fact that he had commanded Project Bible.
Shaik said he regarded the information on the database as belonging
to the ANC. Only when they instructed him to hand it over, would he
do so.
He would refuse to hand it over to the intelligence agencies, Shaik
said.
In December 2002 he used the database to reconstruct an
intelligence analysis concluding that national Director of Public
Prosecutions Bulelani Ngcuka was "most probably" an apartheid
spy.
This analysis was based, among other things, on four intelligence
reports stolen for Shaik from the former security police.
They were also contained in the database.
By analysing these reports and other intelligence information
during the late 80s, Shaik for the first time concluded that Ngcuka
had been a spy, he testified.
He had since obtained more information which confirmed this
suspicion, and added it to the reconstructed analysis.
This report Shaik handed to journalist Ranjeni Munusamy, who wrote
a newspaper article in which the allegations against Ngcuka first
surfaced publicly.
Shaik will return to the witness box on Friday, when his
cross-examination will continue.
He and former transport minister Mac Maharaj are named as Ngcuka's
main accusers in the commission's latest terms of reference.
This resulted from them being the first to publicly confirm the
Project Bible investigation into Ngcuka and its conclusion in the
late 80s. – Sapa.
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